I think the problem came back when they updated the _MSC_VER from 1700 to 1800. I'm not sure how to set the MSC version or what that is. Maybe it's a Microsoft compiler version for native c++. I can see that cl.exe produces a 1800 number
for VS 12.0.

Thanks for your continued investigation. I like your dedication to helping solve my problem.

I'm using VS2013 with Windows 8.1 Update 1 with ARM and Release selected. You need to use the custom XAPO in the main program in order for the linker to trigger. Note: there is no error if you don't use the custom XAPO class.

See code in the else section of my work around for example of using the custom XAPO. The code basically comes from the XAudio2 example in Windows 8.1 SDK.

The package manager install for DirectXTK : has error MSC_VER': value '1700' doesn't match value '1800" in Visual Studio 2013. I have a buildable version of the TK that can be added to my project though it would be nice to see stuff work without workarounds.